"Let's start with the biggest issue on the horizon: the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Yes, the ultimate decision is about a year away. But sides are lining up for and against, and right now, the Surface Transportation Board, which is colloquially known as STB -- the railroads' economic regulator -- is considering the details of how the rules governing that decision will be applied."
"Those lines carried more than 11 million passengers in 2024. That's almost two-thirds of all Amtrak riders outside the Northeast Corridor. The harsh truth is that if you care about Amtrak trains running on time, going where you want to go, and adding the service that you need, a combined UP-NS will effectively have veto power over all of that. We will be living in the world that UP-NS creates - and doing so on their terms."
Decisions made in the first ninety days of 2026 could reshape passenger rail across the United States. The proposed Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger is central to those outcomes. The Surface Transportation Board is defining how merger rules will apply while stakeholders already lobby around the proceeding. Together, UP and NS host 25 of Amtrak's 44 state-supported and long-distance routes — fifty-seven percent of the national network — which carried more than 11 million passengers in 2024. A combined carrier would have decisive control over on-time performance, route changes, and service expansion. Of 69 FRA-selected corridors, 33 would run partly or entirely on UP or NS tracks, putting nearly half the planned future network under a single company's influence.
Read at Streetsblog
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